death toll from a massive explosion in the chinese port city of tianjin jumps to 44 according to state media. hundreds more are injured as shockwaves from the blast destroy a vast industrial area. >> cisco shares jump after

fourth quarter profit rising 3%. u.s. strength offsetting weakness elsewhere. >> news corp. swings the 4th quarter loss but beats estimates as cost guiding in it's news division does pay off. >> you are watching worldwide exchange. a second hour of our show. futures higher across the board in premarket trade. the dow up about 58 points. nasdaq up 55. positive earnings could help the index move higher but the chinese yuan extending it's losses for the third day despite wednesday's intervention by the central bank. we have been keeping an eye on asian markets that did close higher across the board. what does that mean for the global index but right now it's

higher by 14 or 15 points on the day. we are slightly higher in today's trade. a big move to the upside. a rebound if you will. the german markets have been impacted by that move taken by the central bank to devalue the currency but some of those names coming back in today's trade. that's helping the german index move higher by 1.5%. the french markets up almost 2%. a 1.7% gain for the italian market and let's just point out what's happening here in the u.k. the ftse 100 up by 58 points. this despite oil prices continuing to move to the down side. we should point out here in europe we're waiting for that greek parliament vote. not sure if it's going to be market moving but something we're keeping on our radar. >> absolutely and today equities bouncing back a bit. a little bit of risk on sentiment today. that allowed yields on some safe haven bonds just to tick up a

little bit although as you can see at the moment we're just moving down to the down side. 2.15 on the u.s. ten year and 0.62 on the german ten year. let's look at forex rates. volatility has been the order of the forex markets during the course of this week. today the u.s. dollar moving higher once again. that's been the general reaction to this chinese move is the u.s. dollar has rebounded upwards and more of that today. 111 on the euro. 30 basis points decline. the one currency that certainly moved strongly, aussie dollar weakened very strongly on tuesday. bounced back yesterday but weakening today. 0.73 as we look at things now. now commodity prices rebounded a little bit today and yesterday. they have stabilize over the last two days having weakened sharply back on tuesday up 0.5% for wti. brent 50.3. it's up 1.3%.

gold as well because we've seen a reaction to a soggy gold market quite sometime now. although today that is now just selling off again. 111 -- 1,117. it's off 0.7%. let's check in on markets in asia. >> wilf, there are two dynamics going on here giving rise to this relief rally in the stock markets. as you can see across asia right now, the first thing is external u.s. markets, late session recovery on wall street. that helped. the dollar has backed off again. september lift off seems to be off the table for now at least. it looks as though it's going to be a december story. that's what the markets think in the here and now.

a lot of people trying to get a handle on whether this is regime change or short-term in nature so the scope and the duration, whether it's to get down to 10% for the devaluations. >> you referenced cold water on the idea. the markets taking that statement at face value and coming to the conclusion that perhaps we're not in the early throws of a currency war. let's see how they fix the midpoint tomorrow and next week as well. that's going to be crucial. we've seen the reaction because of the devaluations but because of that normalization so a bit of a relief rally also in the currency space. so the real fragile currencies here, they're really in the firing line as they are back off

the lows but there's a lot of ground to make off. these currencies are still hovering around 17 year troughs so we're looking at levels we vn se haven't seen since the days of the currency crisis in the late 90s. back to you. >> thank you very much. the dow raised a 277 point loss to close nearly unchanged as oil tablized providing a boost to energy stocks. joining us live from new york is andrew berkeley. managing director and head of institutional portfolio strategy. thank you for joining us. let's talk about the reaction we have seen in u.s. stock markets to the chinese devaluations earlier in the week. it was overwhelmingly negative though late in trade yesterday quite a surprisingly strong rally to finish flat. do you think people are less

concerned about what's happening in china? >> yeah, good morning. i think concerns have eased a bit as china has come out and tried to settle the markets down a little bit. it's the fear of the much stronger tlar as tstron stronger dollar as the prospect of the feds starting to raise rates here. it's underlying commodity prices and sectors holding the markets back. like energy, like you're saying. so that stabilization in some of those commodity areas. that's what we saw yesterday was energy and energy stocks were the first things to start to rebou rebound. but we need to see stabilization in the commodity prices. >> this move though by china added a certain level of confusion to these markets. traders trying to understand what this means for their portfolio. how are you recommending clietst

to make money as beijing stimulates the economy. >> one trade or one strategy that we've seen has worked well in this strong dollar, low commodity environment is to stay more domestic and if you look, more domestic areas in the u. s. that aren't really impacted by the currency moves, they tend to be a lot of financials and a lot of regional banks within the financials that look good within our model that we run. a lot of retail, smaller retail. that will be the story over the next couple of weeks is we see the retail earnings flow through. the u.s. as a whole is export oriented. staying more domestic as you get the currency volatility or u.s.centric has been a good strategy and will continue for

the remainder of this year. >> my next question would be valuation. if you take a look at merging markets that's basically in bare market territory, down more than 20% for the recent high. would you still stick with u.s. stocks? >> yeah, i don't think so. i think the valuation case has been there for awhile and will continue to be there. that's the thing about valuation is stocks can stay cheap for a long period of time just as they can stay expensive for a long period of time and you need a catalyst and what that's going to be is demand metrics improving on the commodity side and will put a floor under commodity prices in general and that's what you'll need to see before em starts to work. >> thank you for now. stick with us. we'll be back for another chat in a few minutes time. let's give you a rundown of what to watch this trading day in the

u.s. weekly jobless claims are out at 8:30 a.m. eastern. with filings expected to hold steady. also we get july retail sales expected to get a boost from demand from cars and trucks. other economic data includes july import prices and june business inventories. kohl's reports after the opening bell. also king city and party city. >> coming up on the show, it's the battle of old versus new tech. what's going to win the game for the end of 2013. we'll discuss sisco's recent earnings report and what that tells us about the value and opportunity in old tech stocks. that's coming up.

welcome back. let's remind you of the headlines. the death toll from the blast in tianjin reaches 34. vice president biden sounds out his support as he weighs his options for a presidential run. >> news corp. swung to a net loss as it wrote down the value of its education business

amplify. it includes dow jones and wall street journal. news corp. says it's in advanced talks with a possible buyer for the education business and it plans to start paying a dividend for the first time. news corp. shares rising about 5% in after hours trade. up a similar amount in europe. cisco shares jumping 4% following an earnings beat. mary thompson has more on the story. >> the network giant delivering solid results thanks to a modest acceleration in growth and sales of switches and reuters. these products had been under pressure from competition from software based products. on the conference call the firm's new ceo struck a confident tone saying he believes he's stepping into the role at an incredible time for the company. >> cisco is a strong position. when i think about our strategy i look at the huge market opportunity that exists as

businesses and governments use technology to drive their growth and operational efficiency. >> for the quarter, scisco earnd better than expected 59 cents a share. among the highlights of the quarter, a 21% increase in deferred revenue and strength in it's growing security business. a business that will be a focus going forward as clients are adopting to the firm's subscription based model. as robin sells assets to accelerate the firm's transformation the firm is on the look out for acquisitions to drive the new strat swri. geographically the americans were the drivers. revenue off 7% offsetting flat results from asia pacific and europe. when asked about the emerging markets he says brazil and russia remain tough but in china the firm had the best results in a few quarters with india and mexico being bright spots.

for the current quarter, cisco is forecasting earnings of 55 to 57 cents a share. it's forecasted to grow in line with expectations. back to you. >> let's talk more about tech with andrew berkeley who is still with us. i want to talk about this new versus tech debate because the new tech names if you will, social media, momentum stocks have been getting creamed over the past one month. is this the time to rotate into some of the older tech names that offer slow but consistent growth? >> yeah, i think so. generally speaking, you know, we like large caps a little bit better here given the increase in volatility. they should hold up a little bit better but for the broader market what we have seen is more of the rotational correction over the past couple of weeks. it's been one of these new tech names hit hard now. we have seen other areas, media, and other things but it's

rotational volatility. cisco is a pretty solid name. another beat and raise quarter. it's going back to the middle of last year so not a lot of top line growth but they're doing a good job holding up their margins and we think that's kind of a good place to hold out. valuation in the old tech names they traded 12.5, 13 times earnings. pretty reasonable. >> are you surprised at the extent of the after hours move on sis coe. forecasts moving forward, revenue growth 2 to 4%. that's in line with analyst estimates so this after hours move a little bit surprising? >> a little bit. if you go back with the trading pattern over the past year or so it's had the jumps higher so it's been a stair step higher. you know, now we moved up into the next range. we think we'll continue to move higher but it's a very big move

after the report. probably expect some sideways action from here. >> andrew,quickly sum things up for us outside of sis coe. what's your top sector call at the moment? >> so we're neutral on tech overall. we like financials a lot. we're starting to see the loan activity pick up. as rates move higher that will be good news so financials will be the improvement we're seeing. health care is a strong leadership area and there's pockets for the consumer discretionary that still look good and we'll see that with the retail sales report. should be solid for the month of july when we get that out this morning. >> thank you for joining us this morning. much appreciated. head of institutional portfolio strategy at oppenhiemer.

>> u.s. launches probe into dean foods. the company did not comment on his departure but davis's lawyer says it was voluntary. the wall street journal reports davis is suspected of leaking inside information about the company's spin off of white wave foods in 2012 to a professional gambler. he is allegedly thought to have tipped off pro golfer phil mickelson. >> the biggest names in golf tee off at whistling straights in wisconsin today for the 4th and final major of the season. rory mcilroy returns to defend his title having missed the british open with an ankle injury. he sets off with jordan spieth and british open winner zach johnson at 1:20 p.m. local time. tiger woods is off at 8:15 local with martin kaymer that won the last time this competition was on this course. >> tom brady's meeting with nfl commissioner goodell has dpgone

viral. the artist promptly apologized for any offense caused. brady was in court to appeal his four game suspension for his part in deflategate. >> i can't believe you just said his name. he who must not be named. you must not say it. >> i must not say it. >> she would be very upset. chicago cubs first baseman anthony rizzo flash a routine foul back. the edge of the field and on to the tarp and into the stands never losing seeing of the ball. no easy feet for someone that stands 6'3" and weighs 240 pounds. >> how tall are you? >> 6'5". >> 6'5". >> high heels for me. that's all i know. >> lucky. you have plenty of shoes to wear

them. >> still to come on worldwide exchange, we're going to fly high. the official flag ceremony for the u.s. embassy in cuba takes place later today. we'll discuss what this means for diplomatic relations coming up.

>> light tricks closed a $10 million funding round from caramel ventures. this on the back of the success on the apple store ranking as the number one paid app in 120 different countries. joining us now from new york is the co-founder of light tricks. pleasure to have you on the show. you got $10 million from a lead venture capital firm in israel. what are you going to do with this money? >> thank you for having us back. it's great to be here. we're going to accelerate development and continue with the vision we started with. state of the art tools on concentration on mobile. that's always been the vision and it's great to partner with people that believe in it too. >> quickly remind our viewers the two main apps you have in your business, tell us what they do. >> so these are two of the most

succe successful and powerful on the operation. both of these applications have been the number one paid apps in over 120 countries. in fact, it's been the number six application overall on ios in 2014. we're very happy about the success we have garnered with users and we believe it's because we bring extraordinary powerful technology to this platform which needs to be there. >> i'm surprised i don't have either of these apps on my iphone yet. the point of this thing is to appeal to people's vanity, right? >> i would disagree. unless you consider creativity to be a form of vanity, right?

and light is about creating art work, doing anything you want to express yourself with imaging which is just the way that a lot of people communicate these days. regardless of how cynical we want to be about it. that's the way it s. photos are a way of communication and people want powerful tools that enable them to do whatever they want with them. we're giving them those tools. >> but to amply identisampliy h always using a filter. >> it says we'll have 4 billion smartphones piano the end of the decade where we had only 1.5 desktops. mobile means that everybody has a super computer in their pocket and a lot of people are doing whatever they want with it and being super creative and communicating with it nonstop. and i guess our vision was always to give those people

tools that are as powerful as you get on desktop. and i think it's a good thing. >> and just final question, quickly, so far you're only available on ios, is that right? and you haven't launched on android? why is that? >> that's not exactly precise. facetune is also available on android and has been as successful there as on ios as well as google's best of 2014 following apple's best of 2013. we -- you have to understand our developments take millions of dollars to build and we continue to bring them out to different platforms as we can. we have pretty long development cycles because you're talking about serious technology over a year. we hope to make what we create available for everybody but it takes time. >> great stuff. thank you very much for joining us. the co-founder of lighttricks.

>> some advice for you wilfred. as women we appreciate no filter. give us the real deal. >> sure and i put hashtag no filter, even if i have a wonderful tan, it's no filter. >> now we're obsessed with making ourselves look better through social media. what are we teaching our children? children? >> well,

and now you can use zip recruiter for free. go to ziprecruiter.com.

5:30 a.m. here in new york. 10:30 here in london. good morning, everyone. >> here are your headlines from around the world. >> china in a fix. authorities push the yuan even lower but the pboc dismisses claims the currency is heading for a 10% devaluations. >> the death toll from the massive explosion in tianjin

jumps to 44 according to state media. hundreds more are injured as shockwaves destroy a vast industrial area. >> cisco shares jump after posting an earnings beat with fourth quarter profit rising 3%. u.s. strength offsetting weakness elsewhere. >> news corp. swings to a fourth quarter loss but beats estimates as cost cutting in it's new division pays off. >> now implications of china's move to devalue it's currency still a big topic of discussion here on thursday. we're looking at futures slightly higher. we're up 34 points in premarket trade for the dow. keep an eye on the tech heavy index given the better than expected earnings from sis coe. that could help the tech index move higher. calling for a higher open. oil prices stabilize overnight. that helped the energy stocks

out perform. exxon mobil and chevron gaining 2% in trade. those have significant exposure to the chinese market. in today's trade here on thursday some of those stocks staging a rebound specifically in the luxury and auto sector. can this rally continue if the pboc continues to sper convene. the xetra dax and german markets up 1.5%. if you take a step back they're still in correction territory down 10% from the recent highs. we're higher around 1.6% and the italian market with a gain of 1.7%. the euro stoxx 50. this is a good gauge of stocks across the euro zone. we have been seeing the euro hold ground around 109 and 110 against the u.s. dollar. right now thanks to the move in the german and french markets

the euro stoxx 50 index up by 1.5%. >> 214 soldiers are on their way to the city of tianjin where a series of explosions at a factory killed at least 44 people according to chinese media. 15 hours on from the blast and fires are still burning on the site. concern is growing about the after effects given the nature of the hazardous chemicals used. kelly filed this report. >> reporter: a first blast had shaken the port city of tianjin just before midnight. then this. a massive explosion many times bigger than the first blast and a blinding white light. they see it and then they feel it. shattering windows and turning shards of glass into projectiles. images of the blast flooded chinese social media.

a store front disappearing. a living room covered in broken glass. tonight local hospitals are overwhelmed with hundreds of injured. some burned. many cut by flying glass and debris. tianjin is one of china's biggest industrial centers, home to 11 million people and a major hub for petro chemical industries. tonight people are being warned to stay inside in case of toxic fumes and 70 miles away in beijing, this message. please shut the doors and windows. not sure if harmful gas. canadian glenn alexander in beijing got calls from people in tianjin. >> the first conversation we had is that the firefighters and first responders had all been knocked over and there were dead bodies all over the street. >> state broadcasters said the double explosion was caused by a fire in a warehouse carrying

some sort of explosive material. smoke was still rising at the scene of the blast. two firefighters remain missing and at least 13 people are dead. given the force of the explosions, that number is hikely to rise. nbc news. >> and the latest death toll there is 44. moving on, china's central bank reassured markets about the country's currency saying there's no basis for further yuan depreciation. it's had a strong economy, sustained trade service and ample reserves give strong support to the exchange rate. there's also a possible 10% devaluations of the currency. yuan weakened for the third straight day today as it lowered the midpoint range again. however the gap has narrowed. >> luxury retail stocks are rebounding along with the rest of the markets in europe today. this after shares in some of the sector's biggest companies

dropped sharply in the wake of china's devaluations of the yuan. you can see them all higher in today's trade. let's talk more about luxury with mario, a luxury analyst. pleasure to have you on the show. will this result in the chinese consumer spending less on luxury items? >> i don't know. a devaluations of the yuan encouraging import into china and you'll see less fx benefit. the first thing that is interesting about it is that chinese tourists are discouraging traveling aboard and when we travel abroad they're avid buyers of luxury goods and 75% of the consumption of a luxury good by chinese is made abroad. last but not least any changing in the currency or economic environment can undermine

consumer confidence. so the devaluations of the yuan is negative news but we have to see how much it will impact the real consumption. >> which has the highest to china and further moves by beijing. >> we estimate that 30% of the two-third consumption of luxury goods worldwide is chinese consumer. they have luxury players. like watch makers has between 40 to 50% of it. why it's slightly lower but always between 25 to 30%. >> so, in the markets there clearly some level of bounce back. that follows two days of much larger declines than we're seeing bounce back today. so overall do you think that the market sold off a little bit too much? are you positive on the sector despite the chinese valuation

moves? >> i'm still positive on the long run and still positive about in china there would be long material economic growth. basically the market dropped down because there is an uncertainty that there would be devaluations. today they assured they would not go down to a double digit devaluations of the yuan. there's another fear. our reality is weaker, the growth in the chinese economy and this is something that we will see going forward. the luxury good sector is highly influenced by the gdp. it grows in average 1.5 times. >> are there any stocks here that you would be buying today? is there a buying opportunity? >> may have been. it's a good-bying opportunity.

their opportunity to grow going forward. >> thank you for joining us. a pleasure. >> let's get a check on commodity marks. we did see oil stabilize. wti crude at $43.30. right now we're looking at brent crude. the international gauge for oil above $50 barrel at 50.08 up around 42 cents. light crude is higher by 5 cents but a heated debate as to the currency devaluations and the impact on the oil marks. some say this will spur growth and lead china after the unfortunately s. to buy more but commodities become even more costly and a negative for oil. >> indeed, it's a tough one to workout and, in general, the bigger thing for me the last couple of days is how serious the slow down in chinese growth

is. >> the other factor is lower gas prices. will that feed into consumer spending more? we'll get a check on that at 8:30 a.m. eastern. in the meantime the environmental protection agency inspecting all field work at u.s. mines. this comes a week after a contractor caused a breach at a colorado goal mine sending toxi sludge into a river system. it's been identified as missouri restoration which worked on hurricane katrina and the oil spill. they were trying to cause waste water from escaping the mine when the breach occurred. >> joe biden is using part of his location to sound out about a possible presidential bid.

he's asking for advice and gauging how strong the campaign is aas he weighs his options. revealed the disease spread to other parts of his body. carter is rearranging his schedule to undergo treatment and will make a more complete public statement next week. carter's family has a history of pancreatic cancer as his parents, sister and two brothers died from the disease. >> a u.s. flag will be raised outside the american embassy on cuba on friday to mark the reestablishment of diplomatic ties. >> still to come on worldwide exchange. old versus new media. news corp. with positive results. we'll discuss that story. don't go away.

technology has high exposure to china, specifically apple that relies on the chinese consumer to buy iphones. so when we found out they were devaluing currency apple shares

fell by about 5% but ending higher by around 1.5%. what does this mean for the week? you can see apple shares basically flat up by around .1% but of course we'll be keeping an eye on the stock and what it means for the broader nasdaq. >> apple holding up a little bit better. let's move on. news corp. pleases investor with the latest results while nbc universal goes in search of partners to expand it's digital media line-up. landon is standing by in cnbc hq. >> let's start with news corp. pointing to a net loss after writing down the value of its education business excluding items about profit and revenue beat forecast thanks to cost-cutting efforts in the company's news and information services division which inchuds dow jones and wall street journal. it's a 13% drop in ad revenue

and 5% on the negative impact of the dollar. it accounts for 2-thirds of total revenue. they'll start paying a dividend for the first time since it was spun off. it is in advanced talks with a potential buyer called amplify. it was launched in 2012 and built around a tablet based curriculum. they'll start marketing the product to new customers but will still provide service to one up about the same today in europe. nbc universal seeks to expand it's digital media line-up in an effort to appeal to younger viewers and millennials cutting the cord. it owns brands such as news hub,

rocks.com, the verge and reports say nbc universal is also close to investing $200 million in buzz feed. it has also expanding into journalism. that would value it at $1.5 billion. comcast, the parent of nbc universal are down 1% in europe. >> here's the headlines, the death toll from the blast in chinese port city tianjin reaches 44. vice president biden found out his support system for a presidential run. worldwide exchange, we're back in two.

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european markets are upbeat today as you can see recovering previously off the back of the chinese devaluations. rebounding, which we did see as well in the later trade yesterday and that feeding through today on european markets. germany up 1.5% although it had declined over 5% in the previous two days. >> u.s. markets taking their queues from europe at this point in premarket. indicating a higher open. wall street up by 36 points. s&p 500 up by 5 and the nasdaq seeing a gain of 18 points. let's get you a run down of what to watch this trading day. 8:30 a.m. eastern with filings for unemployment expected to hold steady. also we get july retail sales which are expected to get a boost from a surge in demand for cars and trucks. other data includes import prices and kohl's reports before the opening bell. after it's about applied

materials, nordstrom, king digital and party city. we have a lot of data coming out tod today. before we talk about the economic data i want your thoughts on china. it will not actually be seen by the fed as a near term head wind? >> i don't know. i mean they're trying to continue to figure out what is happening to their economy and it's going to make it. that will be able to export more. it is a little bit of concern. i don't think that that will change any of their view on the economy but, i mean, yeah.

this will put a little bit more downward pressure on prices because they're going to be a little bit cheaper when we buy them so that will keep inflation from increasing in the u.s. and that could have some impact. >> but if beijing continues to intervene will this spark a global currency war? >> it's very difficult to know. the chinese currency has been kept outside of the markets. outside of the flow of the markets for so many years that it is very very difficult to know. we have seen other currencies going down in what we could call kind of a currency war but i think the chinese like to keep things and i don't think they'll be the one producing or starting a new round of currency wars.

>> let's put the focus back domestically on the u.s. retail sales out today. what are you expecting and how important are the numbers today ahead of a potential rate hike? >> yeah. they are relatively important. last month was very very weak. this month we think that there's a recovery. we have to always remember that these results are nominal so whatever the effects of inflation are are nominal. we could see some take back from gasoline prices that continue to come down. so overall we think that it is going to be a very very positive number. but, again, we have to remember that it is a nominal number. so we have to wait a little bit to see what the real increasing retail sales are.

>> and just very quickly, the u.s. dollar enjoyed a boost over the past couple of days because of external factors. has that meant it's a little too strong in the short-term? what's your call for the u.s. dollar over the rest of the year? >> we have a currency strategist group. their view is that they'll continue to appreciate over the next couple of years. this plays well into their forecast. we think as they continue to prepare for the first increasing interest rates in almost 7 years that u.s. dollar is going to strengthen over the next couple of years. that will have some impact on u.s. exports for the rest of the world. >> thank you for joining us. much appreciated. that's all we've got time for today here on worldwide exchange. thank you for joining us. i'm wilfred frost. >> i'm seema mody. next up is squawk box. have a great day.

we'll see you tomorrow.

china's central bank with a possible 10% drop in the currency. also cisco rising. beating the street with a boost for strong u.s. demand for its product and caught in the rough, authorities want to know whether the former chairman leaked information to a professional gambler suspected of tipping off phil mickelson.

it's thursday august 13th, 2015 and squawk box begins right now. ♪ >> good morning, everyone. welcome to squawk box here on cnbc. i'm becky quick with andrew ross sorkin and scott. >> joe is on vacation this week. let's get you up to speed on the markets. take a look at the u.s. equity futures. yesterday the dow ended upturning around. 277 point early decline. ended up unchanged by the end of the day. you can see there's moderate advance with the dow futures up by 38 points. s&p futures up by 5.5 and the nasdaq up by close to 20. more on the overseas action and china central bank in a moment. but first as you are just waking up check out these pictures. huge explosion shaking a port city in china killing at least 44 people and injuring